New wifi services for travellers in Australia

Several new services in Australia are making it easier for travellers in the country to connect to the internet during their trip.

Qantas announced today that it has completed rolling out its high-speed Optus wifi in its 40 lounges across the country.

The wifi service, offering connection speeds of around 10 to 20Mbps, is available to Qantas club and Qantas first and business lounge customers at domestic and international terminals at 20 airports, including Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

“This provides customers with the highest quality wifi service, which is not matched by any other airline at Australian airports,” said Lyell Strambi, Qantas domestic chief executive.

Car rental company Hertz Australia is now offering its customers the option of renting portable wifi units. The device is pocket sized and powered by a battery recharged with a USB cable. It connects to 3G networks and provides a wifi signal that can be used by five devices in the vicinity simultaneously.

Rental costs A$12 (US$12.40) per day. This gives you a daily data limit of 150mb after which there is an option to purchase more data by credit card. Hertz has not announced the prices in Australia yet, but in New Zealand, where it is also available, it is NZ$7 (US$5.75) for 50mb and NZ$12.95 (US$10.70) for 150mb.

Hertz said they would consider introducing it in other parts of Asia as well.